In new memoir, Johnson says bug was found in routine sweep of ‘secret annex’ bathroom where PM ‘repaired for a while’ during foreign office meeting
Oct 3, 2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have planted a listening device in the bathroom of Britain’s ex-premier Boris Johnson when visiting the then-foreign minister’s office in 2017, according to an excerpt from Johnson’s upcoming memoir obtained by British media.
Quoting the excerpt from “Unleashed,” which is set for release later this month, The Telegraph reported Thursday that Netanyahu, then on his first-ever visit to the London office, asked to use the bathroom that Johnson describes as similar to “the gents in a posh London club” which exist within a “secret annex.”
“Thither Bibi repaired for a while,” writes Johnson, referring to the premier by his nickname, “and it may or may not be a coincidence but I am told that later, when they were doing a regular sweep for bugs, they found a listening device in the thunderbox.”
The Telegraph said it was unclear whether Israel was at all confronted over the incident.
Asked for further comment, Johnson told The Telegraph: “I think everything you need to know about that episode is in the book.”
The newspaper noted that not long after the episode relayed by Johnson, Israel was accused of bugging the White House, in a 2019 Politico report that cited three former United States officials. Netanyahu, at the time, denied the report, and then-US President Donald Trump also called it “hard to believe.”
Continue reading at www.timesofisrael.com
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